When the rapper – born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. – was 12 years old, he shot himself in the chest with a gun he found in his mother's home in New Orleans, barely missing his heart.

Lil Wayne, 35, has always maintained the self-inflicted gunshot wound was an accident until recently admitting on an unnamed track from his upcoming album "Tha Carter V" that it was a suicide attempt, according to his new cover story in Billboard magazine.

“He just told me one day that he was ready to address it now,” Mack Maine, president of Young Money Entertainment told Billboard. “Just being an adult, reaching a level of maturity and comfort where it’s like, ‘I want to talk about this because I know a lot of people out here might be going through that.’”

The father of four told the magazine he pulled the trigger after his mother said he couldn't rap anymore. He has addressed the shooting in his music before.

His 2015 song "London Roads" includes the lyrics: "Ms. Cita/ I remember goin' in your gun drawer/ Puttin' it to my chest and missin' my heart by centimeters/ Oh Lord"

The long-anticipated album "Tha Carter V" is set to release this fall.